191: Trust me, I will come back and get you out of here.

She could easily explain the source of the food, but if she produced water as well, someone as shrewd as Gong Qiuqiu would surely guess part of the truth.

Ai Yue looked regretful; she could only endure it for now and wait until she returned to the surface to find her parents and the others.

"We've been trapped here for too long; we have to find a way out. I'll try the Earth Evasion Technique to see if we can leave," Ai Yue said.

"Alright. I wonder how my younger brother and the others are doing," Gong Qiuqiu said, his brow furrowing slightly in worry.

Ai Yue was also somewhat worried. After all, she hadn't tested how durable the escape pod actually was. If the Technology Auction's description had been an exaggeration, she would regret it immensely.

"Let's go. They will definitely be fine. They're probably trapped somewhere right now, waiting for us to save them." Ai Yue took hold of Gong Qiuqiu and merged into the stone wall of the karst cave.

Ai Yue led Gong Qiuqiu away from their temporary shelter in the karst cave, moving rapidly toward the surface.

Halfway there, Ai Yue was forced to stop by Gong Qiuqiu. She looked back and realized that his face was flushed bright red, and his eyes were rolling back as if he were suffocating from a lack of oxygen.

Ai Yue was startled. Only then did she realize that she was perfectly fine deep underground without air; in this sealed environment, she wasn't suffocating at all.

Ai Yue didn't have time to overthink it and immediately pulled Gong Qiuqiu back the way they came.

Once they returned to the karst cave, Gong Qiuqiu immediately began gasping for air. Only then did Ai Yue have the chance to wonder: how could there be air in this deep underground karst cave?

She hadn't paid much attention at first, but after what they had just gone through, she had to consider this easily overlooked question.

After a while, Gong Qiuqiu caught his breath and asked in confusion, "Ai Yue, just now... why didn't you suffer from oxygen deprivation?"

Ai Yue thought for a moment before saying, "It might be because of my Earth Evasion Technique."

Gong Qiuqiu's pupils contracted. "No..."

"No what?"

Gong Qiuqiu gave a slight smile. "It's nothing."

On the surface, he seemed fine, but his heart was far from calm.

He couldn't agree with Ai Yue's words. Could it be?

Does knowing the Earth Evasion Technique really prevent oxygen deprivation underground?

What about him then?

He also knew the Earth Evasion Technique, yet after a long time, he still lacked oxygen!

Therefore, the fact that Ai Yue didn't need oxygen and could move freely underground was definitely not because of the Earth Evasion Technique.

But what was the reason?

It seemed that Ai Yue herself didn't understand the underlying cause.

This person, Ai Yue, was truly interesting.

Gong Qiuqiu was more interested in her than ever before.

"Gong Qiuqiu? What are you thinking about? I'm talking to you!" Ai Yue had said several things to him in a row, but he hadn't reacted, just staring blankly in a daze.

"Hmm? What?" Gong Qiuqiu snapped out of it and asked.

Ai Yue felt a bit helpless. He hadn't become stupid from the lack of oxygen, had he?

She had no choice but to repeat what she had said: "I said, what do we do now? Do you have an oxygen tank? How are you going to get out without an oxygen tank?"

Ai Yue had oxygen tanks, but she would never just pull one out of thin air.

"Yeah, I can't get out without an oxygen tank." Gong Qiuqiu spread his hands, indicating that he didn't have one on him.

Ai Yue thought it over and said tentatively, "How about... I go out first? Once I find an oxygen tank, I'll come back down to get you?"

"I think before you can find an oxygen tank and come back to save me, I'll have starved to death in this karst cave," Gong Qiuqiu said calmly, without a hint of anxiety.

No matter how difficult his situation was, Gong Qiuqiu always maintained a calm and indifferent appearance.

Ai Yue thought for a moment, fumbled around her person for a bit, and pulled out five "compressed biscuits" made of maggots and five vegetable pancakes handing them to Gong Qiuqiu.

"Don't worry, I won't let you starve. I know where there are oxygen tanks. Once I get one, I'll come back and take you out. It will take two days at most. For these two days, eat these and bear with it; it should be enough to keep you from starving."

Gong Qiuqiu took the food Ai Yue thrust at him. His face was calm, but his tone was slightly weak and helpless as he said, "Ai Yue, my life is in your hands. You..."

Ai Yue reached out and gave his shoulder a reassuring pat. "Rest assured. Since I said within two days, I will definitely come back within two days to take you out. What? Do you have no faith in me?"

Gong Qiuqiu's shoulders relaxed, and he sat down against the stone wall, saying, "My only choice right now is to believe you! So I must have faith in you!"

"In that case, wait for me here and conserve your strength!" After Ai Yue finished speaking, she didn't linger. She turned and merged into the stone wall without hesitation, vanishing from sight.

Gong Qiuqiu didn't show much emotion at Ai Yue's departure. Instead, he ate all five vegetable pancakes.

Once the pancakes were gone, he wanted to continue with the compressed biscuits, but his fingers twitched, and after a moment of hesitation, he didn't open the packaging.

He tucked all the food into his robes, turned off the flashlight, and leaned against the stone wall with his eyes closed to rest and build up his strength.

Without the burden of Gong Qiuqiu, Ai Yue moved toward the surface at an extremely high speed, encountering no further obstacles.

After an unknown amount of time, Ai Yue finally emerged from the soil.

It was night outside. The sky was dotted with stars, and the silver moon cast a clear glow over the land.

By the moonlight, Ai Yue discovered that the place she had emerged was not far from Nameless Mountain, though the area had been destroyed beyond recognition.

Ai Yue left a mark there and then hurriedly departed.

After putting some distance between herself and the spot, she slipped into her space, quickly ate and drank her fill, and then immediately exited the space without stopping for anything else.

She rushed toward Nameless Mountain through the night. When she arrived and saw the scene before her, she was shocked. She hadn't expected that monster to have leveled the place.

Ai Yue steadied her mind, located her home's position on Nameless Mountain based on her memory, crouched down, pressed her hands against the ground, and closed her eyes.

She used the upgraded version of the Earth Evasion Technique to observe the situation underground with her mind.

Centered on her location, she searched several miles above and below the ground, but found nothing.

As for places even deeper underground, she couldn't probe them.

With a thought, Ai Yue vanished from the spot.

By now, she was already underground, rapidly heading deeper.

She reached the limit of her surface probe and stopped.

Ai Yue repeated the same trick, continuing to search the surroundings and deeper underground from there.

In this way, time and again, over and over, she searched perseveringly.

Until dawn, she still hadn't found any trace of the escape pod.

Ai Yue sat slumped on the ruins, thinking hard. In such a critical situation, where could the escape pod they were in have been thrown?

She had searched everywhere she could think of; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a carpet search. She really didn't know where else to look.

No!

There was still one place nearby that she hadn't been to.

After thinking hard for a while, Ai Yue suddenly remembered a place she hadn't searched yet.